One of Mississippi's top junior prospects returned to action last week.

Tupelo running back Ashton Shumpert missed the first four weeks of the season after fracturing his knee on his first carry in the Golden Waves scrimmage Aug. 12.

But the 6-foot-2, 205-pounder made his 2011 debut last week against Columbus rushing 18 times for 101 yards and one touchdown and catching three passes for 42 yards.

"It feels real good to be back playing," Shumpert said. "I felt a little rusty and started off slow but then the pace of the game started to come back to me."

Despite his efforts, Shumpert and Tupelo fell in a heartbreaking 24-23 loss to Columbus in the final two minutes of the game.

"Everything was going by fast," Shumpert said. "The toss was working on them a lot so we were just running it and running it. We scored a couple of times but then it came down to crunch time and our quarterback (Luke Hobson) got hurt. He broke his lower leg in a couple of places. It's bad, real bad."